EU experts seek to ward off Russian food ban
Source: Reuters
(Adds Russian comment paras 4-5) BRUSSELS, Nov 24 (Reuters) - European Union experts will make an urgent trip to Russia next week to try to convince it not to ban EU meat exports, the European Commission said on Friday. Russia has threatened to suspend import licences for EU shipments of live animals, products of animal origin and animal feed from Jan. 1, when Bulgaria and Romania join the bloc, saying it was unsure the countries met food safety standards. "We are sending a team of experts on Monday where they will explain the transitional measures which the EU intends to put in place regarding Romania and Bulgaria and try to calm Russian fears," said Philip Tod, a spokesman for the EU's executive arm. A source within the Russian delegation at the EU-Russia summit in Helsinki said he was hopeful that a solution could be found. "It was not a warning and it would be a mistake to represent it as such. What we did was simply to note the existence of a problem," the source said, adding that EU and Russian officials hoped to resolve the issue so a ban would not be necessary. The Commission has already taken measures to ensure that Bulgaria and Romania sell on the EU's single market only meat that is produced according to the bloc's strict standards. It has extended for nine months into 2007 the existing restrictions on exports of live pigs and pig meat from Romania and parts of Bulgaria to the rest of the EU because of classical swine fever. In addition, dozens of food processing and slaughterhouse operations in Bulgaria and Romania will face export restrictions to other EU nations for some time after both countries' accession: a standard measure that was also applied in 2004 when 10 mostly ex-communist countries became EU members. Some EU officials say privately that Russia, where food safety standards are by no means higher than in the EU, used food trade restriction threats for political reasons to extract concessions from the bloc in other areas. Russia briefly banned food imports from the EU in 2004, when the 10, mostly former Soviet satellite countries joined the bloc, citing concerns over food safety certification. (Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Helsinki)
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